Why did life have to be so hard? That question kept running through Rhiannon's head as she walked by the McClintock Cemetery. She kept asking herself this as her witch senses went into overdrive.
"Did you just realize I was standing here? I thought you were the best vampire hunter around. People need to get their stories in order," she heard behind her.
Natasha jumped from her ledge. "And you need to know when to learn that I don't want to deal with you tonight," Rhiannon retorted, as she looked at the vampire. She couldn't help noticing her straight black hair and the way she walked and presented herself.
"Now, now. Is that anyway to address your mortal enemy? I thought we were beyond the reason for attitude," Natasha stated.
"I'm not in the mood for formalities. If you're going to fight me, just do it," Rhiannon stood staring at her nails, as if bored.
"Now, why would I do that? Knowing that is what you want. How about I just do this?" Natasha stepped forward, kissed her and disappeared before Rhiannon could react.
Now why did she do that? Rhiannon couldn't get that kiss out of her head. She knew she was a lesbian but no one else did. That is what she had been contemplating when Natasha had made an untimely entrance. She knew hat she needed to tell her family but she was scared of their reactions.
She sensed a presence over the hill. As she walked over the hill, she heard a scream, that alone sent her into a run.
As Rhiannon approached, she saw a couple of men chasing a young woman. Rhiannon ran over and hit the closest guy in the back of the legs. He turned to her and went to hit her across the face. She blocked the hit and shoved him away. She grabbed her knife from her boot and slashed at him. When she realized that he was just a distraction, she plunged the knife through his heart and watched him fall to the ground to burst into a pile of ashes. Sometimes she hated vampires, they aggravated her allergies.
Rhiannon ran to where the other vampire had dragged the woman and kicked him away. He turned to her and hit her across the face. She reacted with a kick to the groin. As he fell to his knees, she took out her knife and stabbed him through the heart, without waiting for him to fall to dust, Rhiannon turned to the girl.
"Are you alright?" Rhiannon asked, holding out her hand to help the woman up.
"Yea, I think so. What was that?" the woman asked Rhiannon, wiping off her clothes of the dirt and leaves.
"You really don't want to know." Rhiannon answered.
Now, why had she kissed Rhiannon? She really didn't needed anymore trouble. She really didn't need to fall in love with someone who never could love her back. Hadn't she learned that lesson five hundred years ago? She appeared in front of her family's manor and walked through the big double doors.
"Mama, I'm home," she yelled from the foyer.
"I'm in here, Tasha," her mother, Valeriya, yelled from the kitchen. As Natasha walked in she saw her mother finishing the dishes.
"Mama, why do you do that?" Natasha asked, gesturing to the sink, "We have servants to do that for us."
"What if I don't want to forget where I came from? I used to be as lowly as a sewer rat. Besides, there are never that many to do," her mother started to argue.
"Ma, you shouldn't have to remember any of that. You should be glad of the accomplishments you have made," Natasha tried reasoning with her mother, placed her hands over her mothers.
"Yes, but it took me...us almost two hundred years to get this far. This is why I do menial labor, to help me to remember, to never forget." Valeriya explained.
"Alright, Mama," Natasha gave in, "I'm tired. I think I'll head to bed. I couldn't find a kill tonight."
"And why is that? Was someone to busy watching a certain person," her mother asked with a knowing look on her face.
"No, I actually got to see her face to face. It's the oddest thing. She looks just like Tanya. My heart aches and my brain just stops," Natasha explained, "Why do we have to be cursed? Why can't I just love her? Why is what we had so wrong?" her voice broke on that last question. Her mother just opened her arms for Natasha to walk into.
Just then Natasha felt a tingle on the back of her neck.
"How are my two favorite ladies?" her father, Innokentiy, asked. He hadn't realized that Natasha had been crying.
"I'm fine," she answered her father, wiping her eyes before turning to her father, "but talk to your wife. She's washing dishes again."
As Natasha headed out, she heard her father start with a "now, honey." Hearing that Natasha scurried from the house, knowing her mother, that phrase was enough to start a full fledged argument.
Natasha sat on the back porch, feeling the sun rising above the horizon. Many questions kept running through her head. Why did Rhiannon look just like Tanya? Was it a sign or was life just cruel? She closed her eyes and just sat, remembering Tanya's smile, the way her eyes shined with both mischief and malice, the way her laugh seemed to bring light into the world, no matter how dark the shadows. Was she falling in love with Rhiannon because she looked like Tanya or because she really cared for her? She couldn't help wondering if Gaia was trying to help her to find love again. She looked just like Tanya, right down the long, black curly hair and gracefulness portrayal of her body and herself.
Ok, now to tell her parents she was a lesbian. Just what Rhiannon needed, another argument with her parents, they would just blame each other and then it would fall to her to feel sorry for herself. She walked into the family house and sensed her mother in the library.
As she walked in, she saw her mother over near the bookshelf, looking for something else to read.
"Evening, mother. Where is the rest of the family? I need to call a meeting." Rhiannon asked her, sitting on the loveseat. Rhiannon felt that her heart was beating so fast that her mother could hear it.
"So call a meeting. You know what to do," her mother Michaela replied never looking up from where she was standing.
"Yes, mother. I am not five. I just don't have the energy for it. I don't want to use power I don't feel that I have," Rhiannon replied.
"Fine, I'll call them," her mother said, sounding as if she could care if her daughter ever got anywhere in life. Michaela closed her eyes, went into a trance and communicated with the family through their minds. "There, they should be here shortly," before she even finished her sentence her brother Adrian and her father Andreas walked into the room.
"Now what was so important that I had to leave a very wonderful woman I just met?" Adrian asked.
Her father walked in and place on a kiss on his wife's cheek and hugged Rhiannon.
"I had mom call a meeting. I need to talk to all of you. Now we are just waiting for..."before Rhiannon could finish her sentence, her sister walked into the house to fall into the seat beside her. Rhiannon sneezed. "Sabine," she said. Vampire dust, why did it only bother her?
As her family settled into the seats near her, she started to explain why she called a family meeting.
"I called you all here because I wanted to talk to you. I have a secret that has been nagging at me for some time. I have only just admitted to myself. I am a lesbian," Rhiannon stated.
Her mother just stood up and left the room.
"Look at what you did to your mother. You destroyed her. Now, how do you feel?" her father, Andreas, yelled at her as he followed Michaela out.
Sabine looked at her for minute with puzzlement and then broke into a big grin, "At least now I know why none of my match making skills ever worked. You know I'll always be there for you."
Adrian walked to her and gave her a one arm hug, "I'll love you always. No matter who you love."
They both left the room. Rhiannon sat on the loveseat and wondered why life had to give her so many ups and downs. First, she was falling for a vampire and now her parents hated her. But she just couldn't care that her parents probably hated her. She felt that they had hated her for years anyway, so why would it be any different? She knew she should go talk to them without Sabine and Adrian around. She slowly walked from the study to the upper hallway where her parent's suite was located. As she neared their room, she heard her parents arguing. This wouldn't have come as a surprise, considering they argued a lot but they were arguing about her.
"Don't you see, its happening all over again. I thought that it was all a myth. That it wasn't to happen. Why us, why our family?" her mother seemed to be yelling at her father.
"You knew it was bound to happen. The curse has been waiting five hundred years to come into effect. It wasn't about to just disappear. When the old ones did that they knew what they where doing. They know that their magic would last for thousands of years if they needed it to," her father explained.
Rhiannon knocked at her parent's door. Her father opened the door and looked at her with disgust.
"What do you want," her father asked angrily. "I would like to talk to you and mother," Rhiannon replied with just as much venom in her voice.
Her father stepped back and allowed her entrance into their room. She saw her mother standing at the bay window. As she stepped in, her mother turned to her.
"You are not to hunt. For now, we would like for you to stay here at home. Before you start to argue, I want you to know that it is nothing personal and we accept what you have told us," her mother explained," Have you set a date for the wedding with Carsten?"
Rhiannon looked at her mother with shock and disbelief on her face. "Did nothing I said penetrate? I'm not marrying Carsten. I don't love him," Rhiannon just about screamed at her.
"You will marry Carsten and you will stop with this so called acceptance of who you think you are. No daughter of mine will be a lesbian," her father said with a harsh tone.
Rhiannon turned to her father and said, "Well, then I guess I'm not your daughter. I will be out of the house by morning. I will talk to Carsten on the morrow and explain to him I can't marry him."
"You will do no such thing. I will have no one know of my daughters fall from grace, her abomination. This family is respected. I will not have you sullying our good name," her father yelled at her.
"If I am not your daughter, then there is nothing stopping me. Nothing you can do," Rhiannon retorted, "I'll be out of here by morning."
She turned to leave the room but found that she couldn't move from where she was standing.
"Let me go," she yelled, "you have no right."
"I have every right," her mother stated, "You will listen to your father or by Gaia, I will punish you. You know what I can do. Now you will marry Carsten and forget the nonsense you sprouted tonight."
